8 Year Promise
by MerryAnchor16
Summary: For muffingirlbethan's contest (if I'm not too late :/ ) AU. Werewolf! Zoro x Sanji


**An 8 Year Promise**

_**Zosan Prompt**_

_**xhelloxbeautifullx asked:**_

_**Zosan; Sanji falling in love with Zoro eventhough Zoro is a werewolf that attacks the village they're in :3 x**_

_**Much credit goes to hiiroshukketsu who helped me write this at her house whilst I stayed over- she help proof read and edit with me ^-^**_

_**This is also for muffingirlbethan's halloween contest**_

_**Enjoy! ^-^ x**_

* * *

'I'm sorry, Sanji.'

'Please Zoro! It doesn't have to be this way!'

Zoro bit his lip in frustration, forgetting for a moment about his now jagged canines and almost drew blood. How could he make this idiot see? 'What about the villagers? The people I killed- your friends?'

The blond shook his head, his hair messed and his cheeks flustered from the speed he'd ran at just to get here, 'It doesn't matter. That isn't you. I know it isn't- you can't help it-'

Zoro growled, 'What about Zeff, huh? What about your father?'

Sanji looked away.

'Can you forgive me for that one, Sanji? Can you ever look at me the same way again after that?'

Sanji swallowed before looking back at Zoro. 'Yes… you know I can.'

Zoro snarled at Sanji. 'Then you're an idiot! That's your father I killed and you're willing to forgive me for it?'

Sanji stumbled across to Zoro, his legs shaking a little with fatigue as he did. His hands quaked slightly as he reached out and placed his hand on Zoro's shoulder. His skin was hot, as it always had been, even through his torn and mud-stained clothes. Sanji smiled slightly, reminded of the many nights they'd spent locked in each other's arms. For a split second, Sanji was lost in those were shattered as Zoro yanked his arm free.

'You shouldn't be near me anymore… it's not safe.'

Sanji shook his head, pulling up the fringe that covered his right eye. The roughly shaped paw-mark that marred the skin was a hot red compared to his pale complexion. It was the mark that the blond always kept covered; the mark that would have led to his own torture and execution back in the village. He'd only ever revealed it to one other person, his father, who had sworn he would never hand his own son over to such a fate.

Zoro looked down, trying his best to ignore the mark and its meaning. 'It… it doesn't guarantee anything. Especially not your-'

'To hell it does!' Sanji replied quickly, startling Zoro with the ferocity in his voice. 'You said so yourself; a werewolf only has one imprint to give! You wouldn't have given it to me if you wanted to hurt me!'

Zoro cursed under his breath. He couldn't deny the fact that Sanji was right. With the mark there, Zoro knew he would never be able to harm the blond. It emitted Zoro's scent that only he could smell, whether he was in human form or his cursed one. Even if he did lose himself - no matter if it was a full moon or a blood moon – there was no chance he could cause the blond physical harm because the scent would tell him that Sanji was his property; something to protect.

'You know I'm right,' Sanji said. 'I can tell you know. So… why are you doing this? Why are we standing here and arguing about whether I'll be safe or not?'

'The village knows about me, Sanji. But they don't know who I am. They have never seen me like this; as a human. I can move on and no-one will notice me vanish. But, don't you think it'd be suspicious if the werewolf goes missing… along with Sanji Black?'

Sanji shrugged. 'They'd think you'd killed me too. They'd think that in an attempt to avenge my father I faced you and died trying! They would just think I'm dead and that would be the end of it.'

Zoro looked up into the starry sky, locking his eyes onto the silver light of the moon before he spoke again. 'You don't understand. I live a life of solitude… I don't settle anywhere for too long, I don't get attached to things-'

'But you got attached to me!' Sanji roared, his voice tearing through the night. 'Everything we've been through must mean all the more if you don't get attached to anything! You can't just expect me to be happy with the idea of you leaving my life for good!'

'And you can't expect me to be happy with the idea of you having to live how I do,' Zoro replied quickly. 'You wouldn't be able to be with people, you wouldn't be able to live a normal life like you should be allowed to! I… I want you to live the best life you possibly can… but if you stay with me then I know that I can't give you that perfect life.'

Sanji ran his hand through his hair in frustration. 'I can't have a normal life anymore! With this mark I-'

Zoro looked across at Sanji. 'Exactly. I've shredded up any hope of you ever having a happy and peaceful life. And for that, I don't deserve you.'

Sanji choked on the air in his throat. 'I… I had to agree to the imprinting! The feelings needed to be shared for it to happen, Zoro! Had I not felt the same, had I felt even a shred of doubt in my heart that I didn't want you… that I didn't love you in the same way that you love me then we wouldn't be here right now. We'd have never come this far.'

Zoro sighed. 'You're never going to give up on me, are you?'

Sanji shook his head. 'You know I won't! I never will-'

Before Sanji could finish talking, Zoro dashed forward. The blond was helpless to stop Zoro from tearing free the pistol from its holster on Sanji's hip. After the werewolf incidents had occurred, all of the villagers had been told to carry around silver plated pistols with a round of silver bullets; the gun being plated so that even if the bullet failed to hit its markthen the wielder could beat the beast into submission. Sanji carried it around to keep up appearances.

Zoro hissed as the silver burnt into his hand and even in the dark Sanji could see the the blisters that were already forming on his left palm. The blond dived forward, wondering if Zoro had any idea of what he was doing, before stumbling to a halt as Zoro raised the barrel of the pistol to his own head. The silver hissed on contact with his skin and the blisters spread rapidly, more quickly than Sanji had ever imagined they would.

'Then I won't give you the choice,' Zoro spat. 'Trust me, you'd be better off without me. Everyone would… I'm a monster.'

Sanji felt tears flooding into his eyes, but desperately blinked to keep them from falling down his cheeks. 'Not to me you aren't Zoro! You know it's not true.'

Zoro bared his teeth against the scorching pain that was spreading across his skin. 'This has to end, Sanji! And if you won't let me go then I have to do this to make you.'

Sanji threw himself at Zoro, his own hand clutching onto the pistol and his head resting parallel to Zoro's so that their jaws touched. Zoro recoiled, but his strength wasn't going to help him fight the blond away.

'What are you doing, idiot?' Zoro roared. 'Let go! If this trigger goes off then we'll both die!'

'If you kill yourself now, what's to stop me from using the next bullet to take my own life?' Sanji replied quickly. His heart hammered against his ribs as he spoke and he continued to struggle against Zoro to keep the pistol aiming at both of their skulls. The only reason Sanji was managing it so far was because the silver was dampening Zoro's abilities; had this just been a regular gun Sanji wouldn't have stood a chance at holding his own against Zoro.

'You're being stupid!' Zoro snarled. 'I told you to let me go!'

'Make me the promise that you won't pull the trigger,' Sanji bargained.

'What?'

'Promise me you won't pull the trigger!' Sanji repeated. 'Promise me that we can find a way around all of this!'

Zoro managed to tilt his head enough to look Sanji in the eye. 'What do you want me to do? What else can I do?!'

'This is part of you,' Sanji said. 'The wolf is just another version of you. There must be some way that you can control it!'

'Don't you think I've tried that before? All these years and I've gotten no closer to controlling it!'

'But you've never had a reason to control it before! But now you do: you have me!'

Zoro faltered, unable to find anything to contradict the blond's statement. His mind went back to the very first time he'd met Sanji.

Zoro had been running from a mob that had chased him from the next village over and hadn't had any time or energy to find anywhere quiet to hide and change back. He'd passed out in the forest, sure that he'd be killed by the mob still pursuing him but had woken up to a blond haired man asking him if he was alright. It was almost a miracle on its own for Zoro to realise that he'd survived the night, but to then be cared for by the strange man seemed almost surreal.

Sanji hadn't shown any malice or hate towards Zoro, even though he was knew nothing about Zoro or where he'd come from. The blonde had given him clothes, fed him properly and never hinted that Zoro was outstaying his welcome. Normally Zoro would never have stayed with a stranger, or any person for that matter… but Sanji had been so different.

Zoro had gotten so used to being with the blond that he lost track of the days; lost track of the phases of the moon. The time he'd spent with Sanji had been such an overwhelming change that Zoro had found himself thinking of little else other than the blond who had been so kind and so the time Zoro realised, it was too late for him to do anything about it.

His attempts to flee the village had only brought him to the outskirts before the change was upon him.

He killed 2 people that night.

Zoro assumed that his instincts brought him back to Sanji's house; back to the place where he'd been protected. He changed back and just a little after, the blond returned home too. He took in the sight of Zoro's blood smeared face with a piteous look. Zoro had expected him to be angry, to turn a weapon on him like everyone else had before in his life but the blond didn't once reach for his gun. Instead he unbuckled his belt where the holster hung and tossed it onto the table.

Sanji approached Zoro warily, but didn't look scared. He sat next to Zoro, not mentioning the fact that the green-haired man was crying. He merely put his arm over Zoro's shoulders, running his hand through his hair until Zoro stopped.

When he finally had, Sanji let out a deep sigh. 'I had my suspicions. It looks like they were true.'

'I'm sorry,' Zoro murmured. 'I'm so sorry.'

Sanji turned Zoro's head to face him and their eyes met instantly. Sanji leant in, kissing Zoro softly on the forehead. There wasn't anything intimate about the kiss, but it contained enough for Zoro to know that Sanji would never turn his back to him. Sanji wasn't about to hurt him or do anything that's where their whole mad relationship had started.

It wasn't mad in the sense that they didn't love each other, but was mad enough that the wolf side of Zoro had felt the need to give its life-long imprint onto the blond that had undoubtedly changed his life. Now here they were, trying to stop the other from killing themselves.

If Sanji had tried so hard to keep them together; endured the risk of letting Zoro mark him and continued to defend him despite all of the killings then surely Zoro could try to repay him. Even just a sighed, relaxing his shoulders and released his hold on the pistol. With it now fully in his control, Sanji threw the gun into the tree line just like that night when he'd cast it aside on the table. Sanji's hands went straight to the scald wounds on Zoro's head, carefully tracing his fingertips across the darkened flesh.

'You idiot,' Sanji snapped. 'Look what you've done to yourself.'

Zoro laughed shakily. 'Don't worry about me. It's nothing.'

Sanji went to raise his voice, but curled his fists and contained himself. 'I'm done with the arguing, there's been enough of it tonight.'

Zoro nodded. 'I agree.'

Seeing how shook up the blond was, he smiled reassuringly and lifted his chin up by running his fingers down the side of Sanji's jaw and dipped down with his head brushing his own lips against his. He barely pulled away before Sanji moved forward eagerly, unwilling to let his lover escape the contact he so desperately wanted after the previous tensions and uncertainties. He felt the familiar sensation of Zoro's tongue lapping at his lower lip and couldn't help but smile at the green haired man's awkward version of kissing. It was one of those odd little habits Zoro had always had; born from his true wolfish nature. He had many of them varying from cute things like nibbling playfully on his ear to raw animalistic drags of blunt nails on Sanji's skin and sharp, weirdly pleasant bites on his body. Though, strange as they all were, they were all what only added to Sanji's desire and love for the other.

When Zoro finally pulled away, he panted in Sanji's ear, 'I'm going to try,' he said, 'I'm going to try and control it… I promise.'

Sanji replied with a relieved sigh and buried his face into the other's neck.

'But you need to be patient… I am still going to leave,' Zoro said, shushing the blond when he tried to protest and ran his fingers through the finer hair at the back of Sanji's head soothingly, 'But I'll come back- only when I know it's safe enough for you. Just promise me something in return…'

Sanji pulled back to look the green haired man in the face, 'What?'

Zoro met his eyes and held his gaze, 'Promise me that you'll wait for me. No matter how long it takes.'

Sanji laughed softly and parted his hair so Zoro could see the imprint over his right eye once more, 'I already promised that, idiot.'

(8 years later)

The village returned to normal and there were no more killings, no more mysterious disappearances and no more werewolf. Although the villagers moved on and forgot about the incident, Sanji stayed forever true to his promise and didn't forget. He didn't move on from Zoro. Even stayed living in the same house so that the other would know where to go to when he returned.

Sanji continued his life as normal, never once getting sad that Zoro wasn't beside him because he knew that one-day he would return. He did, however, keep count of every new moon that blessed the night sky since Zoro left. As Sanji looked at his charts he realised that tonight would be the 96th full moon, making it 8 years without contact with his lover.

Sanji sighed. It had been a long time, but Sanji didn't doubt that he would wait another eight years if it meant Zoro would come back to him with control over his wolfish side.

It was, however, as Sanji went about his daily chores and routines that something didn't feel quite right. Every journey he made outside made him feel on edge; almost as if he was being watched constantly. He felt unnerved, and tried to convince himself that he was just thinking too much over the whole thing. Every now and again he caught himself panicking that someone may have figured it out; that the mark over his right eye wasn't a burn mark like he'd managed to convince so many people to believe. But, the feeling didn't seem to go away no matter how much Sanji tried to ignore it and instead of fighting it he decided to stay in until the feeling had passed.

He walked into the kitchen, grabbing an apple from the fruit bowl that resided on the table. It was as soon as he passed the window that something made him stop. There it was again, that feeling of being watched. Only this time it was much more intense and the sensation made him shivet. Something in the back of his mind told him to look up and out of the window.

He looked up, hoping that by seeing nothing he would finally settle the paranoia that was gnawing away at his mind.

What he saw wasn't really what he was expecting at all.

There, stood on the slope between the trees, was a wolf. A deep emerald wolf with a scarred left eye.

Sanji smiled.


End file.
